In an action-packed day, majority of the star racers displayed their true mettle at the Round 3 of the MMSC – Sidvin FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship. Sarath Kumar hold on to his nerve to maintain his brilliance on his return to the scintillating two-wheeler racing extravaganza in India as he registered a crucial win in the Honda CBR 250R Open category. This success is especially significant as he did not display any sign of wear and tear despite going through a layoff period for a year. Beside Sarath, Sumit Lucas Toppo, Arun Muthukrishnan and K. Jagan also strongly portrayed their dominating performance by doubling their successes over the weekend at the Madras Motor Race Track in Sriperumbudur.

The day of intense clashes between wheels was packed with 16 races got off on a rousing note with the Group D 130cc Novice round. Sparks Racing’s Kamlesh Thakur from Jalgaon took won the race beating Chennai riders, Ramesh Kumar (MotoRev India) and K.Y Ahamed (TVS Racing). But in an interesting turn of events, the second Group D 130cc Novice race witnessed a dramatic change as Ramesh Kumar narrowly got the better of Kamlesh Thakur to the finish line five seconds ahead of K.Y Ahamed. In the Group D 165cc Novice class, Chennai rider Arun Muthukrishnan stamped his supremacy on grand note by winning both the races. P. Sandesh and Ramesh Kumar finished on 2nd and 3rd places respectively in Race 1. In Race 2 Arun once again claimed his supremacy over 2nd ranked Ramesh Kumar by four seconds, while P. Sandesh finished on 3rd position.

Muthukrishnan flanked by Sandesh and Ramesh Kumar

The Group B 165cc Open category was consisted of two races. TVS Racing team displayed its supreme class in both of them. In the first race, K. Jagan of TVS Racing finished on the winner’s rank, beating R. Deepak while Harry Sylvester from the same team finished on the 3rd place, thus completing an all Chennai podium. In Race 2 too, K. Jagan and Harry Sylvester from TVS Racing won the 1st and 2nd positions respectively. Shyam Shankar of MotoRev India finished the race on 3rd position.

The Honda One Make Championship with its Stunner Open category injected some adrenaline moments where 17 riders embarked upon the track to establish their supremacy. Once again it was a ‘Chennai’ success in the end as all the 1-2-3 podium finishes went to it. S. Padmanabhan turned out to be the fastest in the lot to claim the top podium finish, while Prativ.S and Allwyn Jebaz claimed the 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. The Honda CBR 150R went through an intense battle where N. Abhishek of Chennai finished the contest ahead of Ranchi’s Sumit Lucas Toppo and Chennai’s Aravind Ganesh. There were all separated from each other by less than a second. The Honda CBR 250R once again paved the way for favourite rider Sarath Kumar of MP TEN10 Racing to clinch the top spot, beating the MotoRev India Team duo of A. Prabhu and D. Dinesh Kumar.

Sarath Kumar celebrates his win in the Honda CBR 250R Open category.

The TVS One Make Championship witnessed the participation of 15 riders. In the Apache RTR 180 Novice category, Prashanth Kumar from Andhra Pradesh registered a crucial win, shrugging off stiff contest from Arun Muthukrishnan from Chennai and Rahul Rathod from Yavathmal. In the ApacheRTR 180 Open category, P. Ananth Raj registered his second successive victory, ahead of Rajesh Kumar and S. Padmanabhan.

In both the days of the Yamaha One Make Championship the spectators were fortunate enough to witness some speed fiesta. They had fair shares of ‘heart in the mouth’ moments as the competitors were not ready to sacrifice even a single inch without a fight. Race 1 of the YZF R15 Open category witnessed the top three split by less than a second. Dinesh Kumar won this category ahead of Vivek Pillai and Shyam Shankar. In the second race too, there was not dearth of excitement; Shyam Shankar this time got the better of Dinesh Kumar and M. Sudhakar after 10 gruelling testing laps. The YZF R15 Novice category put P. Sandesh from Bangalore in the No. 1 driver’s seat. In Group D too Sandesh once again rose up to the occasion and crossed the finishing line ahead of Maharashtra’s Rahul Rathod and Prashanth Kumar from Andhra Pradesh.

Sandesh Leading in the Yamaha YZF R15 Novice Category

The main contenders of the MMSC - Sidvin FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship, the Group A 600cc Superbikes, ensured some surprising elements as championship leader, K. Rajini crashed out of the lead quite early in the race. With this sudden outcome the main contest for the Numero Uno position was left to R. Deepak of Preethi Racing and M. Gautham of MotoRev India. Finally, it was Deepak who successfully hold on to his nerve to beat the fighting Gautham. The 3rd position went to Harry Sylvester.

The MMSC - SIDVIN FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship will once again set the track on fire at the MMRT in Chennai. All hearts have been looking forward to the scintillating round to take within three weeks time. The last leg consisted of 23 races while approximately 250 riders vied for the top honours.